Dennis Quaid and Channing Tatum have joined the cast of Paramount's big-screen G.I. JOE feature, report the trades. Quaid will take on the role of veteran solider General Hawk, while Tatum will portray team leader Duke Hauser. The rest of the cast includes Marlon Wayans, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rachel Nichols, Sienna Miller, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Said Taghmaoui.
Julianne Moore has signed on to star in Nala Films' supernatural thriller SHELTER, VARIETY reports. IDENTITY scribe Michael Cooney penned the script, which will be brought to the screen by the Swedish directing team of Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein.
Details of the plot are on the QT. Nala Films' parent, Nala Investments, is funding the $22-$25 million production, which will begin shooting in late March in Pittsburgh.
Guillermo del Toro is talking with exec producer Peter Jackson and financers New Line and MGM to direct back-to-back films based on J.R.R. Tolkien's THE HOBBIT, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
Luc Besson's EuropaCorp has snatched up the rights to famed French comic book series AVENTURES EXTRAORDINAIRES D'ADELE BLANC-SEC, written by Jacques Tardi, reports VARIETY. The first film in a planned trilogy is set to hit theaters in 2009.
Casterman first published the comics in 1976. Set in post-WWI Paris, the story followed beautiful novelist Adele Blanc-Sec who was chased by moronic police, vicious monsters, shady bad guys and fawning lovers.
Fox's 300 parody, MEET THE SPARTANS, edged out RAMBO from Lionsgate in the box office derby for the weekend ended Jan. 27, 2008. MEET THE SPARTANS grabbed an estimated $18.7M vs. RAMBO's estimated $18.1M in their respective debuts. Fox's 27 DRESSES followed in third place with $13.6M and a two-week cume of $45.3M. Dropping to fourth was last week's monster hit, CLOVERFIELD (with vfx from Double Negative and Tippett Studio), which captured $12.7M for Paramount for a two-week cume of $64.2M. UNTRACEABLE from Screen Gems followed in fifth with an opening of $11.2M.
Burbank, California-based Alpine Pictures has announced that Bonne Radford, Randi Barnes, Daniel St Pierre, and Matthew Jon Beck have all signed onto their production DOROTHY OF OZ, an animated musical based on the writings of Roger S. Baum (great-grandson of original OZ series author L. Frank Baum). The film is being produced in association with Box Office Productions III, LLC.
Imagi Studios has signed FLUSHED AWAY director David Bowers to direct the CG-animated motion picture ASTROBOY, replacing previously announced director Colin Brady.
Anchor Bay Ent. snatched the U.S. distribution rights to Jon Knautz's humorous horror tale JACK BROOKS: MONSTER SLAYER, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. The mid-six-figure pact includes a theatrical commitment.
Featuring NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET star Robert Englund, the film, which debuted at Slamdance, follows a teen (Trevor Matthews) haunted by this parents' murder, whose rage awakens an ancient evil.
Matthews and his Brookstreet Pictures partner Patrick White produced alongside Sound Venture Prods.' Neil Bregman.
The Walt Disney Studios is planning to debut new Disney Digital 3-D versions of TOY STORY on Oct. 2, 2009, and TOY STORY 2 on Feb. 12, 2010, as a lead-in to the 3-D launch of TOY STORY 3 on June 18, 2010. Veteran Pixar filmmaker Lee Unkrich (co-director of TOY STORY 2) is helming TOY STORY 3.
Paramount Vantage has acquired worldwide distribution rights, excluding the U.K., to Nanette Burstein's documentary AMERICAN TEEN, which features animation.
The 22nd James Bond film in the longest-running film franchise will be titled QUANTUM OF SOLACE, it was announced at a press conference today at Pinewood Studios outside of London, where the movie is now shooting under the direction of Marc Forster (THE KITE RUNNER). Kevin Tod Haug, who has collaborated previously with Forster on THE KITE RUNNER, STRANGER THAN FICTION and FINDING NEVERLAND, serves as visual effects designer.
Paramount's CLOVERFIELD (with vfx from Double Negative and Tippett Studio) devoured the box office competition for the first three days of the MLK holiday weekend (Jan. 20), boasting the best January opening ever with an estimated $40M. Meanwhile, Fox's 27 DRESSES debuted in second place with $22.7M. Last week's winner, THE BUCKET LIST, followed in third for Warner Bros. with $14M for a cume of $41.5M. Fox Searchlight's Oscar-contending JUNO settled for fourth with $9.9M and an impressive tally of $85M. Fifth place belonged to Screen Gems' FIRST SUNDAY with $7.8M and a cume of $28.4M.
Penelope Cruz will be voicing a guinea pig in Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films' live-action/CG feature G-FORCE, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. The voice cast also includes Nicolas Cage, Steve Buscemi and Tracy Morgan. Making live-action appearances in the production are Bill Nighy and Will Arnett.
Directed by VFX vet Hoyt Yeatman, the film follows a highly intelligent animal commando force that is tasked by the government to thwart the world domination plans of a maniacal billionaire.
Ken Watanabe (LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA) will play the carnival barker, Mr. Tall, in Universal Pictures' screen adaptation of Darren Shan's 12-volume children's series CIRQUE DU FREAK, reports VARIETY. He joins fellow cast members John C. Reilly and Salma Hayek in the Paul Weitz-directed production.
Adapted by MYSTIC RIVER screenwriter Brian Helgeland, the story follows a vampire (Reilly) who transforms a 14-year-old boy into his half-vampire assistant. The teen goes on to spur an epic battle between the vampires and their rivals, the Vampanese.
Paris-based animation producer Alphanim, which was recently acquired by Gaumont, is planning to branch out to feature animation and live-action children's programming, reports KIDSCREEN. While it will take some time to restructure the company following the quickly concluded acquisition, Alphanim founder Christian Davin said that they were planning a series of full-length CGI movies to follow the success of their 2006 feature FRANKLIN AND THE TURTLE LAKE TREASURE.
The writers strike has claimed another victim -- Warner Bros.'s big-screen adaptation of JUSTICE LEAGUE. The trades are reporting that director George Miller was not content to go in front of the cameras with the current script, written by Kieran Mulroney and Michele Mulroney.
The cast, which included D.J. Cotrona, Armie Hammier, Adam Brody, Anton Yelchin, Common, Teresa Palmer and Megan Gale, has now been released from their contracts.
A first-look agreement between Myriad Pictures and comic book publishers Studio 407 has yielded its first project, the eco-horror movie HYBRID, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Comic creator Peter Kwong will adapt his own work, which follows a group of vacationing college students who become the open-water prey of a mutant monster created by pollution. Producers are Myriad President/CEO Kirk D'Amico and Studio 407 managing director Alex Leung. Filming in Thailand is set to start in mid-2008. The HYBRID comic will hit shelves in June.
Jaden Smith, son of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith and co-star of THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS, has joined the cast of Fox's remake of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Smith has landed the role of Jacob, the eight-year-old who befriends the alien Klaatu, played by Keanu Reeves. The cast also includes Jennifer Connelly, Kathy Bates and Golden Globe-winning MAD MEN star Jon Hamm.
Tweens will be happy to find all their favorite characters returning to HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3: SENIOR YEAR, the first theatrical release in a phenomenal Disney Channel franchise, reports VARIETY. Walt Disney Pictures will release the film on Oct. 24th.
Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu and Monique Coleman will all return. Series director Kenny Ortega and writer Peter Barsocchini are returning as well. Bill Borden, Barry Rosenbush and Don Schain are the producers.
Charlize Theron will star oppostite Viggo Mortensen in 2929 Ent.'s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's bestselling novel THE ROAD, VARIETY reports. Dimension Films will release the film in the U.S.
Adapted by Joe Penhall, the story follows a father (Mortensen) who must lead his son through a cannibal-filled post-apocalyptic America. Theron will play Mortensen's wife in flashback.
The project reteams Theron with THE YARDS producer Nick Wechsler, who will produce THE ROAD with Steve Schwartz and Paula Mae Schwartz. THE PROPOSITION director John Hillcoat will helm.
Italy's Gruppo Alcuni and Barcelona-based Grupo Edebe will co-produce a 3D feature basd on the former's series PET PALS, which is broadcast on Rai 2 and distributed in over 40 countries worldwide. THE PET PALS AND MARCO POLO'S CODE sees the Pet Pals come together again to put a stop to Crow Witch's evil plan to drain the lagoon of the famous city. The film will be released by Christmas 2009.
Warner Bros.' THE BUCKET LIST with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman topped the box office with an estimated $19.5M as it went wide, the biggest opening for director Rob Reiner, for the weekend period ended Jan. 13, 2008. THE BUCKET LIST now has a cume of $20.9M. Debuting in second with $19M was Screen Gems' FIRST SUNDAY. Fox Searchlight's critically acclaimed JUNO went wider but dropped a notch to third with $14M for a cume of $71.2M.
Michel Gondry has confirmed that his past collaborator on such films as GHOST WORLD and ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL, Daniel Clowes, will pen the script for his and his son Paul's animated feature, reports /Film.com.
Based on Paul's universe, which Gondry described as a cross between REN & STIMPY and gangster films, the film, MIGEL MUNYA, follows a dictator who kills his people if they create art that is better than his own.
The DAILY MAIL is reporting that Warner Bros. is discussing the option of splitting the final HARRY POTTER book, HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, into two films. With each book increasing in length, rumors about splitting the books into two films began as far back as PRISONER OF AZKABAN.
JK Rowling states on her website, "It is simply impossible to incorporate every storyline into a film under four hours long."
Lionsgate has gained the North American distribution rights to the new CONAN THE BARBARIAN series from Nu Image/Millennium Films, VARIETY reports. Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer will write the first film in the planned series, which will go back to the source material created by Robert E. Howard.
Avi Lerner, Boaz Davidson, Joe Gatta, Paradox Ent.'s Fredrick Malmberg, George Furla and Henry Winterstern are the producers, with Trevor Short, George Furla and Danny Dimbort exec producing.
